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Six Darfur rebels sentenced to death
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] A Sudanese court on Tuesday sentenced six members of a key Darfur rebel group to hang after convicting them of terrorism and criminal charges, a lawyer said.A seventh defendant, also from the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), was locked away for 10 years, lawyer Tahani Abdelrahim said. Abdelrahim said the sentences will be appealed. The government announced two years ago that the seven were captured in West Darfur after a battle. About 100 relatives of the accused attended the hearing at a downtown Khartoum court but everyone, including journalists, was ordered out for the sentencing by Judge Moutasim Tajalsir. Abdelrahim said the accused stood and shouted in praise of JEM's late leader Khalil Ibrahim as they heard the verdict. "Khalil is a martyr. We are following his path," she quoted them as saying. He died too... Government forces said they killed Ibrahim in December. His brother took over as leader of the movement. JEM front man Gibril Adam Bilal condemned the death sentences against its "prisoners of war" and called on the international community to ensure the punishment is not carried out. One of those condemned to hang is from South Sudan. More than 100 JEM rebels received the death penalty after the movement staged an unprecedented march to the outskirts of Khartoum's twin city Omdurman in 2008 before being repulsed. President Omar al-Bashir  Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. later remitted many of the sentences. Bashir and Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein are wanted by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... for alleged crimes committed in Darfur. In 2003, JEM and other rebels drawn from Darfur's non-Arab tribes rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government. In response, the regime unleashed state-backed Janjaweed militia in a conflict that shocked the world and led to allegations of genocide. Since then, much of the violence has degenerated into banditry. Posted by: Fred 2012-03-22 |
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